DECC

DECC

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) works to make sure the UK has secure, clean, affordable energy supplies and promote international action to mitigate climate change. The DECC is making sure UK businesses and households have secure supplies of energy for light and power, heat and transport. The department is leading government efforts to mitigate climate change, both through international action and cutting UK greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 (including by sourcing at least 15% of our energy from renewables sources by 2020). The DECC employs around 1600 staff based in London and Aberdeen.

Our energy use

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Study our data

DECC shares its sustainability data so that everybody
can help to identify new savings and suggest improvements. The
icons below show the utility data currently available for each year.

If you have ideas on how DECC could
use energy more efficiently, please let us know!

2016

DECC 2016 Electricity half-hourly data is generated
Daily.
It was first created at
5 Aug 2016, 3:32 p.m.,
last updated at
and has a maximum extent of
1 year.

Recent Stories

In 2013 DECC installed a small, efficient, condensing gas boiler dedicated to heating domestic hot water. This allows us to mothball our two large boilers during summer months when they’re not required and is cutting around 60 tonnes of carbon p.a

Our HQ has invested in a new lighting solution that’s estimated to save 183,596 kWhs annually. Combining LED technology with a flexible localised control system, lights automatically turn off in unoccupied rooms and dim in response to daylight levels

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Our estate

Click on a building to learn more about it.

Notes about DECC

Notes about DECC

How do you calculate the CO2e emissions from a unit of energy used?

Energy retailers and the government produce conversion factors that describe the typical carbon impact of different energy sources. These allow us to take the energy uses (in their respective units), and calculate the approximate carbon dioxide emissions, normally measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kgCO2e). Defra's UK conversion factors may be found at Defra's 2015 Guidelines.
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Why are you using these units and what do they mean?

We provide three different measures of the energy used: the amount of energy, its monetary cost, and the carbon impact of the energy used.
Energy use is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh), which are the standard units of a home energy bill (1kWh is the amount of electricity used by ten 100W light bulbs in one hour).
For electricity this number represents the amount of energy that flows into a building through the meter, and excludes distribution losses. For gas it is the amount of energy that is theoretically available by burning all the gas in an imaginary ideal burner. For district heating it reflects a flow of temperature into the building over time (after the heat produced by burning the fuel has been transported to the meter, which involves other losses). So each of these numbers, while all being measured in kWh, mean very different things. This is one reason that we prefer to use 'units per hour' when combining them. In some ways it would be more correct not to combine them at all, because combining them implies that the measures are comparable. This is a global challenge though, and conventions have become established around combining kWh. So we'll have to fix that another day.
Monetary cost is calculated using the costs per 'unit' for each utility in every building. The figures used are noted below in the Notes section.
The carbon impact is measured in kg of CO2e (the e stands for equivalent) which takes other climate-affecting gasses into account in addition to carbon dioxide.

How much does this organisation pay for its energy?

Prices come from the latest energy bills for Department of Energy and Climate Change, which for Gas average out at 4.82p per unit and for district heating average out at 0.2433p per unit and for electricity average out at 0.52462p per unit. The gas volumetric measurement is converted to kWh using the meter correction factors and calorific values supplied by the utility company. These may be subject to change.

Can you show data from the transport emissions of this organisation/ building?

Data of CO2e emissions created by transport used by organisations is very interesting and powerful data to show here. We are working on ways to display and reduce the transport impacts of different organisations, and you will see some of the products of this work on these pages very soon.

What services do the electricity consumption figures relate to?

IT equipment, particularly PCs and laptops, cooling and lighting are the main users and running essential services such as ventilation, water supplies and lifts etc.